Programmed Reality
by BeastyTheOtaku
Summary: The NerveGear, One of the world's greatest inventions gone to ruin. Allowing players to go into a 'Full dive' state they can fully experience what it is like to be in the game. Beta testers find no problems to it and prompt good fortune. But after the full game is released 10,000 player's lives change forever. Will they be able to beat the game? Or will they yield to a false life.
1. OC submitance

Side Note: keep an eye out on my profile. i normally post some agenda on there such as Polls, or what i plan on doing next.

What's up guys Beast here bringing you all my very own SAO fanfic with a twist! If you are interested in having your OC involved in this story please PM me the details. I have a short character fill out sheet on my profile or you can go to the bottom of this the find it. Also you'll have to wait to find out what the twist in the story is so ya.

Oh and By the way thanks to the people who sent in your OC's. I'll try my very best to have each one of them shine in their own way in the story. I'm currently working on the next chapter and will introduce one of your OC's in it as well so keep an eye out. ;)

Meet the OC's

This is a list of the OC's that will be making an appearance in SAO and their owners.

Main OC's

1\. Ryo Kohaku/ Ryo-(BeastZoroark145)

2\. Sumiko Ayane/ Thalia- (BeastZoroark145)

3\. Riko Nodashimu/Kimnyu-(Stormagedon69)

4\. Drake James/ Fable- (That Fable)

5\. Kyle Ketcher/ Phones-(Pokebron)

6\. Areika Desimuto/Aresimu-(Stormagedon69)

Other OC's (Don't exactly know what to intro them add others if i get any.)

1\. Kaito Hashimoto/Kaito-(Anime Fanfiction Master)

2\. (Pending)

3\. (Pending)

Ok so for now I'm planning to have six OC's in this story but if I get any more that I feel would contribute to the story then I'll still add them in.

The character form. I mainly focused on the in game aspect for this so there's not a whole lot to fill out. After all everyone begins and ground zero.

(P.S i dun goofed in this but i fixed it ;3)

Name:

In-game Name:

Age:

Race:

Nationality:

Gender:

Height:

Weight:

Hair style and color:

Eye color:

Skin Tone:

Starter outfit colors:

Personality/Background (Give a basic crash course):

Reaction to the 'Death game':

Solo player or group member:

Fighting style (Sword, claymore, dagger, etc.):

First two skills (one-handed, two-handed, sprint, weapon throwing):

Other:

**Example.**

Name: Ryo Kohaku

In-game name: Ryo

Age: 16

Race: Japanese

Nationality: Japan

Gender: Male

Height: 5, 11

Weight: 157 lbs.

Hair style and color: medium length dark brown hair while the right side slightly covers his eye.

Eye color: Sapphire blue.

Skin tone: fair

Starter outfit colors: Black and dark blue

Personality/Background: Just moving back to his roots from America his life was almost perfect, he had just got a girlfriend, his mom got promoted to manager of a pretty successful company, and he was starting to make a few friends. He was a pretty friendly person once you got to know him but is a bit closed off from others making friendship slightly difficult. he would also do anything he could to help the few friends he has even if it meant getting the living crap beat out of him. He can be a bit goofy at times of relaxation so lifting the mood was a bit of his specialty. Now the not so perfect part is that his little sister was recently diagnosed with a slower version of cancer and they said that she only had maybe three years left to live. But he outs her illness aside not wanting to dwell on the inevitable and rather he enjoys every second with her.

Reaction to the 'Death game': Quite frankly mostly shocked because he had left his sister behind to whatever sorrows she may endure while he was imprisoned in this hell hole so he takes it as his own fault that she may be suffering without him.

Solo player or group member: is a group member in the beginning but becomes a solo player very quickly.

Fighting style: Prefers to use one-handed swords and throwing needles or knives as his main weaponry.

First two skills: One-Handed swords, Sprint

Other: Has a scar shaped roughly like a star on the inside of his wrist.


	2. Before the storm

**Hey guys Beast here bringing you my very own SAO Fanfic. In this OC's will interact with some of the main characters from the anime. A heads up I won't go into extreme detail on game menu since I don't know its layout very well. So enjoy the first chapter and prologue of Programmed Reality. Remember you can send in an OC if you want me to add it.**

**I don't own SAO what so ever**

** -Saturday Last day of the Beta Testing-**

It was 6:00 A.M here in Tokyo, Japan. And a very non-enthusiastic teenager was about to get a rude awakening…

Currently said teenager was having a pleasant dream about some good times he has had with his family. It was one where they all went on an island cruise for a month over the summer. He was currently sliding down the water slide in his dream when he actually felt wet… like extremely wet, and cold.

"_W-why is the water so cold?!" _he said in his dream. Then the second wave hit and he woke up jerkily as he splashed into the water in his dream.

He sat up as if his back was pressed against a spring cold and shivering looking around his room frantically, "Cold, Cold, Cold, Cold, Cold!" he stuttered repeatedly until he spotted the culprit, his little sister smiling and using the most innocent face ever.

"Onii-san~, why are you all wet?" She asked as if she didn't have a clue even though she held the bucket behind her back.

The boy was a bit irritated by this, "Kyra why couldn't you have let me sleep in? Just one day? And why did you call me Onii-san?" he asked still just a bit groggy.

"Well we do live in japan now Onii-san…" she said cutely.

He had to face palm at this simultaneously knocking away the rest of his sleepiness, "Just because we are in another country doesn't mean we have to change how we live… just call me Ryo like you always do. Or well used to" he said.

"But Onii-san it's custom to do so." She said trying to convince him.

Ryo contemplated it for a minute and came up with a solution, "How about this? You call me Ryo when we are at home or just with family, and I'll let you call me Onii-san while in public. Deal?" Ryo asked and his was a good deal.

Kyra nodded happily, "Ok Oni- I mean Ryo." She corrected herself and smiled scampering off to somewhere else in the house.

Ryo let out a sigh of relief almost forgetting that he was cold and shivering, almost. Ryo got up out of bed and took another look around his room, it was only had about ten square meters worth of space 25% of that was occupied by his bed alone.

Along the far side of his room next to the bed sat his desk with a computer on it and a NerveGear headset as well. He walked to his closet pulling out a simple light blue T-Shirt and black jeans and a new pair of underwear, since the current pair suddenly took a trip to the ocean and went overboard, and went to take a nice hot shower.

About twenty minutes later he was all ready and Ryo walked out of his room and down the stairs into the kitchen where his mom was currently cooking breakfast.

Turning around his mom looked at Ryo as he entered the kitchen and looked through the fridge, "And what do you think you're doing?" she said in an annoyed tone.

Ryo looked at his mom with her arms crossed in front of her, "Uh, well I was~…" he looked at a jug of orange juice, "Was just getting something to drink." He finally said with a bit a hesitation. And to try and make it more believable he pulled out the OJ and went to grab a cup.

Him mom looked satisfied and went back to cooking. Ryo sweat-dropped and silently sighed in relief, "That was close…" he whispered to himself that's when he wondered, _"What time is it?..."_ he hadn't paid much attention to the time, after all he was freezing cold so who would bother with time?

Ryo looked at the clock just as it tick forward another minute.

_**-11:56 A.M-**_

Ryo freaked out, he was supposed to meet his girlfriend in-game in four minutes! , "Aww crap! I'm going to be late!" Ryo panicked and grabbed a piece of toast from a plate his mom had just made, "Sorry mom I'll have to skip food this time, otherwise I'll be in deep trouble." With this Ryo set off up the stairs and ran into his room closing the door behind him.

When he got near his bed he just remembered that slight detail that could ruin him… the floor was still wet. Ryo slid a good two feet until he ran into his bed all but gracefully landing on his stomach. Ryo quickly got up plugged in his NerveGear into his computer and put it on, he also checked the battery power in the upper left hand corner of his vision 97%.

Ryo relaxed until he saw the time again

_**-12:01 P.M-**_

Ryo gave up, he was late already… well time for a scornful lecturing.

Ryo relaxed and placed his hands on either side of his body, releasing a final breath entered the full dive environment.

"Link Start!" he said enthusiastically. His vision was completely taken-over by a white plain then dozens of multi colored pillars zoomed towards him, closing his eyes he waited for a couple seconds that felt like eternity until he felt that he had arms and legs again.

Ryo opened his eyes to the world that now greeted him home with open arms. He was currently in a room that wasn't all that large and only had the bed he was laying on, and small table next to a window the right of the door. Ryo got up and stretched making sure he had full motor control, "Alright now then let's check up on my gear." And he approached a dressing mirror in the corner of the room.

Ryo was wearing some not too fancy light armor consisting of «Leather Chestplate », « Leather Paulders », «Leather Leggings», and « Leather Shinguards ». His clothing underneath were a bit fancy. They were black mostly with the sleeves and some outlining being dark blue. And his shoes were dark and simple. Ryo noticed though that this time his hairstyle was the same as in the real world which was odd. It was a medium length and dark brown with the right side slightly covering his sapphire blue eye.

Ryo then half calmly and half rushed out of the room and into the actual inn. It was so old fashioned based from medieval times. The woodwork was nice though and the stone floor was very smooth. Lanterns overhead gave off a soft light glow illuminating the area.

Over at a table in the far corner sat another player, she looked annoyed. Ryo hesitated but he raised his hand and waved to the player, "Hey Crystal! I made it." He said out loud gaining the attention of the female player. Her expression turned to happiness then quickly went back to annoyed and slightly angered.

Crystal got up and practically stomped over at Ryo, "Where have you been?! I've been waiting forever!" then she threw a punch to his chest her fist laced in a pink glow. If it were in real life Ryo would have just rubbed it off but in here her punch carried the force of a car, sending Ryo halfway across the inn's main room.

Ryo rubbed his head and he got an uncomfortable feeling throughout his body and looked at the wreckage. Tables and chairs were thrown a little bit but not a single scratch on them, "Well… I wasn't expecting you to be this made… I'm only a minute late." Ryo nervously said while getting up and dusting himself off.

Crystal, who has found her composer, turned her head away from him, "Well today every minute counts you know. They're shutting down the Beta Testing servers at midnight tonight and I want to get the next boss over with." She said this trying to keep up her irritated routine. But Ryo saw her smirk just a little.

"If that's how you feel then let's get this show on the road." He then took a moment to look around, "And um… where is everyone else?" Ryo gulped as if he just walked into a trap.

Crystal suddenly turned all sweet and cuddly, "Well I didn't invite them… I thought that since it was the last day we could run the dungeon alone." She said this with a pleading puppy-dog face that Ryo could never say no to.

He sighed, "Alright… and I guess you're going to consider this to be a date right?" Ryo asked but he really didn't need to.

She just nodded, "Yep, and don't you forget it. After all, you're the one paying for dinner." She smiled at the last bit but not Ryo, the last time it was 'his treat' he nearly lost all of his Col.

About Ten minutes later Ryo and Crystal were almost to the floor 8 dungeon pillar.

"Ugh… how much longer? I'm tired of all this walking." Crystal said irritably.

"We're almost there don't worry. And why don't you put on your armor already. I'm getting tired of being the only one fighting." Ryo commented his voice sounding like it was getting a little annoyed at the end.

"Fine." Crystal then swiped her right hand downward infront of her pulling up the Main menu. She then scrolled down until she was met by a little icon shaped like a person and tapped it, a small jingle ringing out. She then equipped all of her armor and weapons.

She had the same armor as Ryo only her Chestplate was made from iron not Leather. Her weapon of choice was a two-handed steel battle-axe.

Ryo then looked at his longsword in his one hand a little jealous of her battle-axe but atleast he could use his throwing needles more conveniently while using one-handed weaponry.

Then the large pillar containing the dungeon came into view about another hundred meters.

Ryo then broke into a sprint but not before grabbing Crystal's hand as soon as she finished equipping her items.

"Whoa~ Ryo… slow down!" Crystal shouted, mainly because she didn't have the « Sprint » skill active, so she struggled to keep up.

Ryo didn't hear her pleas and kept pushing forward until they were ten meters away, he then slowed his pace greatly and looked at Crystal panting behind him. It was a surprise because it was normally him that panted but not in this world.

He smirked at her tiredness, "What's the matter Crystal? Feeling a bit tired?" he mocked her getting his little payback for the punch she threw back at the inn.

Crystal glared at Ryo, "Shut up you jerk. I was screaming for you to slow down." She had her face scrunched in an angry way.

Ryo laughed at her, "You know that face can never be considered threatening right?"

Crystal gave up and looked at towards the dungeon entrance then back at Ryo, "Whatever. Let's just kill the boss already I want to do it before the beta test ends."

Ryo nodded and they both started towards the entrance of the floor 8 dungeon. It was going to be a long day…


	3. Begin the Game

Author Note: Time skips are fun. They can make the story progress a bit faster. I just felt like I had to do it.

_**-Day of the Launch, 7:00 A.M-**_

Ryo was so tired, he had been waiting in line for over two days just to get a copy.

"_Ugh… how much longer until the store opens? I need to get one for me and Crystal." _Ryo mentally droned while leaning sideways against a nearby building to take some of the pressure off of his feet.

Then the most amazing thing happened over the past two days. The line started to move forward!

Ryo straightened up, the tugs of sleep vanishing as he was now energized. Ryo was happy and excited, _"Finally we can play the full version after a week of BETA being down."_

Ryo was a little too deep into his happy thought as he walked straight into the person in front of him.

"Oof…" Ryo lightly grunted and looked at what he had just walked into… sadly his luck wasn't very nice to him right then. He had just walked straight into a very tall and intimidating looking guy, who just so happened to be glaring at him.

"Hey, watch where you're going, punk!" His voice was so low and it also seemed that his body was overly muscled, looks like someone has an obsession…

Ryo acted weaker than he was maybe if the guy thought he was scared or not worth wasting energy on he would just leave him alone, he also didn't want to get thrown out of line for some pissed of brick, "I-I'm sorry… I-I wasn't paying attention." He put in the stutters for a little extra effect.

The large man grunted like a satisfied bull and turned back around muttering to himself.

Ryo mentally sighed at least he got away with pissing off a big scary dude… Probably not going to happen again.

The line started moving again and when it abruptly stopped again Ryo was right outside the door. Now he was ready, as soon as those doors opened again he was rushing for the closest copies he can grab. He only needed two.

The doors opened and the rush began, Ryo dashed away weaving through people and shopping carts far better than he should have been able to. The games rack appeared before him about another ten feet and Ryo hit the brakes. There were still a few of them so he just grabbed a handful, and rushed to the checkout stands.

Ryo made it and paid for the copies, "Finally!... wait what?..." Ryo looked into the bag for a double take… he had three copies of SAO… he hadn't even noticed until now.

"_Well… I guess I could sell the third one to make a little money."_ Ryo thought about it. But decided against it as he exited the store, just as the doors opened again letting in a flash mob of anxious players, "Crap!"

Ryo ducked low trying to weave through them but then was slammed into by an unknown object.

"Uwaa!"He fell backwards and whatever it was followed him landing on top of him. He rubbed his head and tried to identify just what was now on top of him.

He was about to say something mean when he noticed… it was a girl. And they landed in a very awkward position as she sat up on top of him rubbing her head as well.

"Uhhh…." She groaned and then noticed the situation she was in.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Ahhhh!" they both screamed at once with both of them getting up Ryo backing up a good three feet.

"I'm Sorry! I couldn't see where I was going and I just ran into you!" Ryo fanatically tried to explain but his words seemed to jumble together.

She laughed at him causing a little confusion for Ryo, "Wait… you're not mad?" Ryo asked cautiously.

"Well I was, but then I saw you tongue twisted all over the place trying to apologize." She said this chuckling the whole way through.

Ryo calmed down and then took a moment to look at the girl. She had long silver hair that reached a couple inches past her shoulder blades, her long bangs going a bit pasted her dark blue eyes. There was a strip of black dyed hair over her left eye slightly hiding it. The rest was swept back to keep the strands out of her eyes. Her skin was slightly pale and she wore some simple blue jeans, and a black hoodie zipped all the way up. Her shoes were practically in tatters as bits of the threading was hanging off.

He then looked back as a ding went off at the back of the store. The last SAO copy just went away.

The girl looked very disappointed, "Aww man, I was really hoping to get one of the copies." She really did look disappointed.

Ryo felt a little bad for her so he reached into his bag and lightly shoved the extra copy into her hand, "Here you can have it."

She look dumbfounded than tried to give it back, "No I couldn't, it's yours…"

Ryo pushed it back and opened his bag for her to see, "I have two more, it's all I need for me and my girlfriend to play." He smiled at her.

She happily took the extra copy and stuffed it into her jacket pocket. What happened next was surprising to say the least. She hugged Ryo wrapping her arms around his neck, "Thank you! And by the way my names Sumiko."

Ryo hesitated then patted her on the back awkwardly, "Y-you're welcome. I'm Ryo." It was maybe ten seconds later that they separated and when they did Ryo thought that he saw a slight blush on Sumiko's cheeks.

She quickly turned around and waved goodbye, "I'll see you in-game Ryo! And thanks again. My profile name will be Thalia friend me when you get the chance." And she was gone mixing into the crowd.

Ryo stood there for a good couple second cementing her username into his head so he won't forget, "hmm… looks like I just got a new friend." He muttered silently to himself and exited to store to deliver the second copy to Crystal.

* * *

_**-12:15 p.m-**_

Ryo came home to it smelling like pancakes. He instantly started walking towards the kitchen after taking off his shoes. Peering inside he saw his mom at the stove again making blueberry pancakes. There was already a stack of four large fluffy ones on a plate near the table.

His mom then turned around and saw him eyeing the fluffy pancakes, "Go ahead, those ones are for you after all." She smiled and went back to making the rest.

Ryo didn't hesitate as he virtually launched himself towards the fridge looked for the syrup and butter, "Thanks mom." He said happily as he sat at the table ready to eat.

_**-12:55 p.m-**_

Ryo was now in his room sitting on his bed trying to fight through the agonizing pain of waiting. It felt like he had been waiting for days when the clock finally struck 12:59.

Ryo quickly grabbed his new NerveGear fixing it into place on both his head and the plug into the computer, he then lied down on his bed and waited. All the waiting had been very worth it for this moment.

The internal clock on his visor turned to 1:00.

"Link Start!" Ryo said very enthusiastically as his vision was once more overtaken by a white blank and multi colored pillars zooming towards and past him. He closed his as always to ignore all the meaningless things and then he felt himself drop down slightly and touch the ground.

Looking around Ryo watched in amazement as tons of light blue mist appeared and each one forming a player from their center. Lots of cheering began as thousands of players logged in simultaneously. Ryo then looked down at his starter gear. It was just some old looking pants and shirt. The color didn't matter to him but they were mainly black with dark blue. He had simple black shoes and some fingerless brown leather gloves.

He clenched his fist, "Awesome, looks like I'm back in action." Ryo said confidently and then remembered, he had to send a couple friend requests.

Ryo pinched his right index finger and thumb together swiping downward. Jingles came from nowhere as little circles with icons in them appeared before Ryo. He quickly navigated to the « Friends » button, it looked like two people standing side by side, and searched Thalia's name in first sending the friend request on its merry way. Ryo then sent the last one to Crystal. After that both of the requests returned as accepted.

"That was fast…" Ryo said to himself and then tapped Thalia's name. A side window appeared and showed what he can do. He chose the « Friend Tracking » option that was in between « Send Message » and « Group Invite ». Everything exited out and a small mini map appeared in front to replace the closed tabs. Ryo's vision also changed to a weird greenish tint. Looking at the map he saw two blips, a blue one in the center and a green one in the bottom left area.

Ryo turned around until the green dot on the map was now in the top center of the screen, "Alright, let's get Thalia and fill her in. and then we can meet up with Crystal." Ryo muttered to himself walking forward.

The two blips got closer to each other and as Ryo approached on of the four entry ways to the center of the city he could see a player waiting near the entrance. Her clothing were relatively the same as Ryo's but she had a skirt and her colors consisted of black and white. Her HP bar appeared beside her and underneath it read.

『Thalia』

Ryo waved over at Thalia, "Hey over here!" he shouted above the noise the crowd was creating as players continued to login.

She looked over at Ryo and waved back, "Hey, I told you I'd see you in-game!" she shouted back happily. Thalia's avatar looked relatively like her in the real world but in here she looked much older. Her features were sharper, and her hair style and color changed to shoulder length and chocolate brown, her skin color was more tan but still a bit pale, but her eye color stayed the same dark blue.

"So you understand how to access your main menu yet Thalia?" Ryo asked politely

Thalia shook her head, "No I haven't figured that one out yet. I was mainly waiting for you to come and find me." She said honestly.

"It's alright just pinch your index finger and thumb together and swipe downward with your right hand." Ryo did just as he was saying so that Thalia would have a visual example, opening up his main menu he waited for Thalia to do the same.

"Alright now for a small crash-course on the main menu, First off the icon that looks like a single person is your « Equipment » tab. It's where you find all your information for the gear you currently have on." Ryo pointed to it at the top of the list on her menu. He then pointed at an icon that looked like two swords crossing together, "That's the « Skills » tab, you can equip certain abilities that you can specialize in such as « One-handed swords » or « Sprint ». For now you can only have two of them active at a time so choose wisely on what you want to grow first."

Ryo gave Thalia some time to look over the available skills she could use and finally settled upon using the two he had listed, « One-Handed Swords », and « Sprint ».

Ryo nodded, "That's a good choice for the weapon and choosing the « Sprint » skill is smart, you'd want to be able to move faster for travel and combat."

Thalia beamed at his praise of her choosing a very useful skill.

Ryo continued the mini lecture, "The icon that looks like a bag is your « Inventory », it has a limit but you can increase the limit by increasing your « Strength ». Next up if the friend tab that's the icon with two people side by side. I think you know what that does. The next thing is « Guilds », this tab will allow you to create, join or leave a guild as well as show you a list of players within the guild you are in." Ryo pointed at an icon that looked like a dagger pointed downward.

"That exclamation mark is your quests tab, the next one is that looks kind of like a book is your « Map ». This will help you navigate through floors and dungeons. And finally the cog shaped icon. This is your « Options » tab. You can change little things such as your menu visibility. That will stop other players from seeing your menu and only you can see it. So that marks the end of the crash course. Hoped it help you a bit." Ryo closed all of his tabs and swiped from left to right dismissing the menu.

Thalia closed hers as well and gave Ryo a hug, "Thanks Ryo this really does help. This is my first full dive and I appreciate that someone can show me the ropes."

Ryo was caught off guard by the hug and held his hands out to the side not exactly sure what to do, "Ya sure. Anytime you need help just message me" Then Ryo heard footsteps coming towards them but he couldn't see who it was because they were behind him.

"Ryo… what do you think you're doing?!" came a very angry and irritated voice. In fact a very familiar angry and irritated voice. Thalia released Ryo and he turned around to a very angry and slightly jealous looking Crystal.

"_Crap… how am I going to explain this?!" _was all Ryo had time to think before he got a punch to the chest knocking him back a little.

"I can't believe you! You think you can just cheat on me like that?! And on the first day of the launch too!" Crystal was fuming.

Ryo shook his hand in front of him frantically, "No, no! It's not what you think it was just helping her! She's a newbie to VRMMOs!" he pleaded practically for him life.

Crystal didn't seem convinced at looked at Thalia with a shocked expression on her face, "Well? Is what he says true? Are you really a new player to this sort of thing?" the way she spoke was like she was in an interrogation room.

Thalia broke from her shock and looked nervously at Crystal, "Y-yea… it is my first full dive…" she said a bit sheepishly, obviously she didn't want to make Crystal any angrier.

Said player finally calmed down and walked over to Ryo and hugged him, "I'm sorry… I guess I jumped to conclusions." She said sweetly

Ryo wanted to say, _"Ya, you think?"_ but that would have been mean, so he went with option B, "It's my fault, I should have let you know beforehand." He apologized even though it was her fault for getting the wrong idea.

Crystal then separated from Ryo, "Hey did you choose your skills yet?" the question being directed to both of them.

Ryo scratched the back of his head, "About that no I haven't. I was thinking of going with the « Daggers », and « Sprint » skills. I heard that they added in a bonus if players chose to use « Daggers »." Ryo said confidently.

Crystal looked at him as if he was stupid, which he probably was, "Oh really? And what would this bonus be exactly? Faster hit timing?" She said mocking him.

Ryo huffed, "Fine then I'll prove it to you!" He said a little insulted but very determined. He flicked his right hand downward opening the main menu and navigated to the icon that looked like two swords crossing together and taped it. Ryo had opened a small window that had a whole list of different skills he could use, but most of them were dimed so he couldn't use those. He made life a bit easier and listed them to Useable and also put them in Alphabetical order.

Ryo scrolled down the right hand side of the window were all the skills were listed and found « Daggers », he tapped it and dragged it to the top bar of his « Active Skills » Column. As he did this Ryo saw a small exclamation mark appear over the « Inventory » icon. But he first equipped the « Sprint » skill.

Crystal looking at the scene before her and crossed her arms waiting for the results, "how much longer until your alleged 'Bonus' come along?" she asked impatiently.

"Hold on… I think the game gave me something and put it in my inventory." Ryo checked this and upon opening the inventory he found three new items. One item was a weapon and the other two, were two pieces of armor? Ryo didn't expect to already have armor but he tapped them all opening two small windows explaining the gear's stats.

"Hmm let's see… What's this? A « Night Raven's Cloak »." he then looked at the stats for it and his eyes bulged, "What? Plus 12 to Agility and 5 to Strength?! How do I even have this?" then he noticed the requirements for said cloak, He first needed 12 AGI and 3 STR, well at least it wasn't too over powered but at least he had a nice piece of gear to look forward to.

Ryo then looked at the first dagger's stats, "And I also got a « Night Raven's Blade » it has a DPS amount of… what?" Ryo looked at the DPS and Damage for the dagger and only saw a question mark next to both of them. He then looked at the description and read it out loud, "'« Night Raven's Blade », the only dagger of its kind to grow alongside its wielder.' By the sounds of this it seems like as I get stronger so does the weapon." Ryo interpreted.

Now Crystal was standing there mouth agape, "Well… it looks like you have proved me wrong, but what's the third item?"

Ryo checked this, "It says it's called « Night Raven's Greaves » and by the looks of it they only increase my movement speed by 20% and give +6 to AGI and +3 to STR." Ryo said simply while looking at the requirements, surprisingly they were the exact same as the « Night Raven's Cloak ».

Ryo closed away all of his tabs but not before equipping his Dagger, It appeared in a small sheath at the side of his belt, he decided to look at it later, "Alright then what about you two? What skill will you get?"

Thalia did as Ryo had and opened her skill chart as well as organizing it, "Well I took the « One-Handed Swords » and « Sprint » Skills if you wanted to know… um" Thalia struggled to recall her name.

Crystal then focused attention on Thalia and waved sorry, "I forgot to introduce myself… I'm Crystal, both in the Real world and in here." She smiled

Thalia nodded, "So what skills are you taking Crystal?" she asked politely.

Crystal pulled up her « Skills » tab and showing off her skill set, "I'm using « Two-Handed Axes », and the « Forging » skills." Crystal acted all cool about it as if it were the best skill set for a beginner.

Ryo rolled his eyes, "Alright then. How about we head out and gain some levels before we have to get off?" he suggested

Thalia and Crystal nodded and Ryo opened the « Friends » tab sending both of them a group invite. They both had little screens appear before them and they tapped the blue circle acknowledging the game that they wanted to join. Ryo then saw both of their names and HP bars appear in the top right hand corner of his vision.

"Let's go!" they all shouted together and ran for the gates leading out to the fields. They were among the first to step outside the city that day, and it was beautiful.

* * *

_**-Approx. 4:45 P.M-**_

All three of them were huffing by now after 4 and a half hours straight of farming the local mobs. These mobs consisted mainly of 『 Wild Boar 』 and 『 Feral Hounds 』, all of then ranging from Lvl 1 to Lvl 3.

Crystal was sitting against a nearby tree relaxing and waiting for the mobs to respawn, while Ryo and Thalia were chatting and Ryo also helping her understand the game a bit more.

Ryo currently had his « Equipment » tab open going through some things, "Oh ya I forgot to mention, each time you level up you can gain four skill points. The points can go into leveling up your STR or AGI. Strength or Agility." He added the last bit in case she didn't know what he might be talking about, "Every piece of gear in this world requires some things such as three STR or five AGI in order to equip it. Also STR increases your health rating and carry capacity, while AGI increases your speed and somewhat increases health but not as much as STR."

While he was going on about this he rechecked their levels

All of their HP bars were full or slightly under 100% and next to all of our names was a number showing our Lvl.

Thalia had gotten to level 3 , Crystal was level 3 as well, but Ryo, Ryo was a different case, He was already level 4 almost 5. People would wonder how he's leveling up so quickly. It's because he let the girls get all the final hit bonuses. He thought that since he already had a weapon that get stronger as he does he wouldn't need that. Currently his dagger did maybe 135 damage per hit and 203 damage per second. He looked at his own skill points now.

『 Points Left: 4 』

『 STR: 5 』

『 AGI: 11 』

Ryo had four points left to spend, he hadn't spent those four since level 1. He wanted to keep some off hand just in case he needed them. He was also almost ready to use that cloak he had gotten. He still wondered why he had gotten it as well as a dagger that is the only one of its kind. He wondered as well if the others will get something unique, then his stomach growled.

Crystal looked over at Ryo as he stared at his stomach, "Hey you guys hungry? I think it's around 5:00 now." She asked sounding a bit hungry herself. And to their dismay the ones who answered her question wasn't them, but their stomachs. They all sighed in defeat to the power of hunger.

Ryo stood up and stretched, "well… let's log out for a couple minutes and get something to eat. Then we can continue to play." He said cheerfully

They all nodded and swiped their hands down at the same time and navigated to the gear shaped icon marking the « Options » tab and tapped it.

The little side window appeared with the listing of what they could do.

『 Screen Visibility 』

『 Invert Hands 』

『 Contact Game Master 』

All these showed up, all except for the 『 Log Out 』button, "Hey what gives? Where's the Log out button?!" Crystal complained. Now what happened next Ryo didn't know yet what had caused it but she momentarily freaked out grabbing her head.

"AHHHHH! No, NO Don't do it mom!" she screamed shaking her head. And as she let out a final wale, her avatar shattered into multicolored triangles and they all floated into the breeze momentarily disappearing.

Ryo was extremely shocked, _"What had just happened?! Where'd Crystal go and why did her avatar shatter as if... as if she had died…"_ Ryo thought frantically and looked an Thalia, "Thalia… can you make sense of this?..."

It was no use asking her because she stood there shocked herself. But it wasn't over, suddenly Thalia was engulfed in a thick light blue mist starting from her feet, this kicked her out of her stupor, "Ahh! Ryo help!" she reached out a hand that quickly disappeared, along with the rest of her avatar.

"Shit…" Ryo couldn't believe what was going on, then he saw that Thalia's HP bar was still in his vision, that was the last thing he saw before his vision was overtaken by different shade of light blue and his body was carried elsewhere.

Author note: I felt it necessary for the little crash course on the menu. It'll also help other SAO writers with the main menu (If they read this that is). But also… Crystal in now one of the 218 players who first die due to no connection to the NerveGear on their heads. I planned this and I think others knew because I never had her on the OC list anyway. See you guys next time.


	4. New faces

Author Note: Just came up with some equations for Col and Exp. Plus it's time for a couple little twists in the story. ;)

_**-1 hour previous Ryo's home-**_

It was nice and quiet in their small home. Ryo's little sister and mom were watching some TV in the living room.

It wasn't extremely fancy as there was a simple rug and couch with a glass coffee table. The TV on a small stand about three feet off the ground centered in the middle of the right hand wall when someone would enter the house.

Ryo's mom sighed, "It sure is quiet again, now that Ryo can full dive again, or whatever he calls it." She said peacefully enjoying the comforts of the couch.

Meanwhile Ryo's little sister was sitting crisscrossed on the floor in front of the couch, "I don't like it, I can't dump cold water on him because of the electric stuff." She said disappointed.

Her mom chuckled, "And he would poke you until you died of laughter if you did."

Then the door bell rung followed by frantic banging on the door, "Jasmine?! Are you home?! Jasmine!" came a terrified male voice.

Ryo's mom otherwise known as Jasmine got up and rushed to the door flinging it open to be met by a panting man in his mid-twenties, "What is it Jake? Is something wrong?" she said very curiously and somewhat concerned.

Jake huffed a couple times to catch his breath and once he found it he looked behind her searchingly, "Where's Ryo, Jasmine? Where is he?" he asked frantically

"Well he's in his room playing with his NerverGear. Why is he in trouble?" she said her voice full of concern.

Jake banged his head against the door frame, "Dammit." He said irritably, "Quickly turn on channel four. You'll understand." He said this with his voice full of sadness.

Jasmine did as she was told and changed the channel to number four and a suspicious report was currently in motion, "-Sword Art Online, now a Death game. Akihiko Kayaba The creator of this game is responsible for the creation of this game that has sold out in a matter of minutes. Over Ten-Thousand players, most of which from Japan, Have now been trapped inside the virtual reality game. Here is a video of Akihiko Kayaba announcing the terms and rules to his artificial reality," The news reporter moved out of the way as a video took over the entire screen.

It was shaky as if someone had recorded this on their phone. Akihiko Kayaba was standing on top of a small building addressing a very large crowd, "Everyone Listen up!" he shouted, "For those of you who have friends or family that have bought the VRMMO Sword Art Online, I am here to address some matters concerning all of them!" he looked around the crowd to make sure everyone was paying attention.

"Sword Art Online is now Unescapable. Any players who enter the game will be trapped there, unless they can defeat all one hundred floors of the game, they cannot leave." Shock ran through the crowd, then yelling.

"That's a load of crap! Players were able to leave during the BETA testing!" shouted a male voice somewhere off to the right of the recorder.

Kayaba then shook his head, "If you don't believe me then I shall tell you the rules of SAO. Number one, if a player is to die in the game, they will also die in real life. Number two, if anyone is to remove the NerveGear from the head of a player, they will still die. So if you value their lives under any circumstances do not take off their helmets." And the video ended there.

Jasmine then looked at Ryo's little sister, "Amber, go get the phone for me please…" her voice trailed off towards the end as shock took over.

_**-4:05 p.m.-**_

After calling 911 Jasmine had gone up to Ryo's room and was sitting at his computer desk staring at him, _"He looks so peaceful."_ She thought as she gazed at her son now trapped in a programmed reality. Then she unknowingly tapped the mouse connected to his computer waking it up and revealing a game recorder software.

She looked at the computer now giving off light at the side of her face, "What's this?" she muttered as she looked at the recording window.

In the window she could see in a first person view of a person wielding a dagger or blade of some sort, radiant red light trailing behind it. She then looked at the top right corner and was shocked at what she saw.

『 Ryo Lvl.3 』Hp:856/1022

『 Thalia Lvl.3 』

『 Crystal Lvl.3 』

She ignored the HP count for the two names under Ryo's as she watched intently at the scene before her.

"Thalia now!" Jasmine heard Ryo's voice but all digitized.

Off to the right of Ryo's vision, a woman with silver hair and blue eyes nodded, "Got it Ryo!" she responded as she sent a short sword slashing horizontally into the side of a wolf. Jasmine saw its name just before it shattered into dozens of colorful shards.

『 Feral Hound Lvl. 3』

A small window appeared in the center of Ryo's vision showing the battle stats.

『 Col: 25 』

『 Exp: 20 』

『 Level up! 』

『 Items Gained: 3x « Wolf Fang » 』

『 Congratulations you are now Lvl. 4 』

Ryo fist pumped, "Awesome! I got another level!" he said cheerfully.

_**-4:45 p.m.-**_

Jasmine was still watching them as Ryo and the silver haired girl were talking, and Crystal sitting next to a tree, _"Their going to see the truth of their game soon as they'll try to logout." _She thought sadly.

She was currently watching them in a third person view so she can rotate the camera and see what's around Ryo. It took her a good twenty minutes to figure out how to do this.

As she rotated the camera around she could see why Ryo loved this game so much. In the distance the sun was barely showing between the large gap between the first and second floors turning the sky to a soft autumn orange.

"What a peaceful view…" she muttered to herself and then she wondered, _"When will the paramedics get here?"_

Before she could continue the thought she heard frustrated chatter. Focusing again on the screen she saw that the three of them finally found out they couldn't log out. And all hell broke loose.

She could only make out a part of her shouts but Jasmine looked at Crystal seeing her freak out and scream, "No, no- do it mom!" she could only make out those few words before she shattered, just like the wolf they had killed. The multicolored shards floating away and disappearing.

Then she focused on Ryo's shocked face, "Thalia, can you make sense of this?" he had said looking over to her.

She was shocked but then engulfed in a very bright blue mist originating from her feet. She reached out but she was already gone.

Ryo now stood alone as the same blue mist overtook him. Jasmine thought it was over, at least until the camera was carried along with Ryo to a large city center, thousands of the same blue light appearing and spitting out a player.

What is probably worse, Crystal's HP bar had disappeared from the screen.

* * *

_**-In the game-**_

Ryo was frightened when the light overtook him, but a quick feeling of relief followed after as he felt his feet touch ground again. Looking around Ryo noticed that he was taken back to the «Town of Beginnings». He then instantly started looking around for Thalia and saw a flash of blue light followed by a flash of silver hair. He set the direction in his internal compass and ran towards the area. He had to shove his way through a sea of bewildered people before he reached Thalia.

"Thalia! You alright?" Ryo asked as soon as he got to her.

She nodded then looked around, "What do you think is going on Ryo? Why are we here?"

Ryo looked around as well noticing the slight fear in other's eyes, "Maybe the Game master forced a teleport… it could be a welcome to the game" he guessed and as he said this he heard beeping.

Looking around he noticed a red sign flashing above the square, well it was a circle but a square is what people call it. Others began to notice the little red sign, Ryo looked closely to read it, "'Warning'?" he said in a wondering voice. Then from that one point hundreds more of the small red signs covered the space above their circular square.

From the cracks came a sort of red glop, it oozed downward the curved inward collecting at a midpoint. The odd thing started to rise forming into a robe. It didn't look as though anyone was in it but the main color was a blood red with golden trimming. A gold trimmed cross was fixed on the center of the magical robe that formed up to be a total of maybe twenty feet tall.

"Ya defiantly a welcome to the game, Thalia you go ahead and listen if you want but we should get the outer edge of this crowd first." Ryo said as he grasped her hand and walked away from the center.

It took them a solid thirty seconds to push their way through the crowd and they were met with an archway, but when Ryo tried to leave he was stopped by some invisible force, "What the… why is the gate sealed off, unless…" he then looked towards the giant red robes again just in time to see multiple little screens appearing and rotating around it.

"-If anyone is to remove the NerveGear from your head, A signal in the NerveGear will trigger and send a microwave signal through your skull, destroying your brain, and ending your life." Ryo had stopped listening at the end of the sentence.

"_Will we actually die? And I guess the same rules applies to if we are killed in this world as well. And if that is true then that mean Crystal….."_ Ryo's expression turned to sadness then anger, and landed on guilt. Guilt that he had unintentionally dragged two others into this death pit himself. He then scanned the floating screens, and the one he was looking for caught his eye. It was focused on a house, but not just any house it was His house. He could see his little sister Amber looking outside from the window, but his mom was nowhere to be found. Then she came bursting from the front door approaching the camera man demanding to see it really quick.

"Ryo… If you can hear I just want you to know, I know what you have just seen a couple minutes ago. But you can't let it get to you! You couldn't have known what would have happened and it's not your fault. But you have to beat this foul game, and save anyone and everyone that you can. No matter who they are a life is a life. And it is the most precious thing on this planet, Ryo, so protect it!" She gave out her speech and relinquished the camera heading back inside the house. Leaving Ryo standing there with Thalia staring at him and a few others nearby following suit. He considered that he would now be an info broker to the outside world, but how?

Then possibly the brightest array of light erupted to life as thousands of players were again engulfed by the radiant blue mist and again were spit out, but this was different, and as Ryo was engulfed as well he felt slightly shorter more, natural. And as the lights faded everyone had changed, he though he even saw a guy who was previously a girl avatar. Now that kind of freaked him out, _"Why the hell would he want to play as a girl?!"_ and the guy next to him turned from prince charming to Mr. Chunky monkey. Ryo face palmed himself, people really would do a bit stupid things.

"Um, Ryo?" Thalia asked, and as Ryo turned to look he stared in wonder.

"_Why did she look exactly like herself in the real world?"_ was Ryo's first thought. As he looked at her now younger figure, and now shoulder blade length silver hair. And she had a small mirror in her hand that was pointed towards him currently.

He took in his appearance, he looked exactly the same in this world and the old one now. His dark brown hair with the right side covering his sapphire blue eye, his skin stayed the same fair tone. His build was average but slightly scrawny. But overall he hadn't changed that much aside from the height and his now younger features.

"Well… so I guess to help us settle in better." Ryo muttered so only Thalia and he could hear. Then the invisible wall faded and so did all the red signs. But followed by the horrible screams of over ten thousand or so players.

Ryo grabbed Thalia's hand yet again, "Come on let's get out of here while we still can, and we can try and head to one of the next towns. We can level up faster and the hunting grounds would be all ours." Ryo suggested quickly but not before waiting for her answer.

She nodded agreeing with him, "I trust you Ryo, I'll help as much as I can." She said calmly.

Ryo nodded and tightened his grip on her, "Don't hate me for this by the way…" he said.

She tilted her head at him, "What do you-?!" she tried asking before she was lifted on his back piggyback style, it made some sense, they could travel faster this way and his sprint skill as at a higher level as well as his AGI.

Still in their own group Ryo crouched slightly adjusting to Thalia's weight and kick started off down the cobbled streets. He opened his menu while running flicking through his equipment inventory looking for the «Night Raven's Greaves» and dragged them onto his «Greaves» slot on the equipment tab and placing one more point into his AGI. He instantly felt faster than before and they made much faster progress.

It took Ryo maybe twenty seconds to run all the way to the outer gates of the city. And he slowed his advance just before he left the safety area. Looking back he saw another player, he had short spikey black hair and he was wearing blue starter gear, he ran right past them seemingly in his own thoughts, _"Looks like he has the same idea as us…"_ He then reopened his menu putting Thalia down. He rummaged through his inventory before he found it, «Night Raven's Cloak». He stared at it before finally dragging it into place. Brilliantly bright multi colored shards appeared from nowhere collapsing in on Ryo forming into the shape of a full body cloak with a hood and what looked like a lower face mask, as if someone took off the top half of a ninja mask.

The main colors of the cloak were black and purple with some silver outlining. All though red was one of the main colors by what Ryo could see the only red on it was a red line going straight down on his right side from his shoulder down to the end of the cloak. And of course it was bordered with silver. At the neck area the mechanism used to keep it attached was a short leather belt bound to both sides of the hood. Down the center was about a centimeter of a blood red and half that of silver just before the cloak split in half for the allowance of fighting. Upon inspection of the inside of the cloak, it appeared to have four pouches and a weapon holster. Ryo then took his dagger and placed it in the holster.

He hadn't looked at it much but it was a short blade that was about six or seven inches long, the entire blade's color scheme was dark just like the cloak. Black, red and silver outlining. The handle was just plain black and silver, the hilt having mostly black with red on it as well. And the actual blade was pure black as night, the only way to tell where it is was to find the two red and silver lines running down the center of the blade, it looked like a 2-D drawing of a DNA strand as there was also some grey connecting the two twisting lines on the inside.

Then a window appeared before him.

Author Note: guess what another Twist and all Cc's will have their own special armor. ; P

『 Armor Bonus Achieved 』

『 Night Raven's Cloak Achieved 』

『 Night Raven's Greaves Achieved 』

『 Night Raven's Blade Achieved 』

『 Night Raven's Chestplate Unachieved 』

『 Night Raven's Leggings Unachieved 』

『 Night Raven's Gloves Unachieved 』

『 Total Added Bonus (AGI+10, STR+ 5) 』

Ryo looked at the window in wonderment, "So this mean that there's more of these I still have to get?" also taking note of the bonus stats.

Thalia looked slightly jealous of Ryo's gear, "How come you get the fancy stuff Ryo?" yep she also sounded jealous…

Hey scratched the back of his head in response, "Well… I don't know. But maybe you'll get your own gear in some time. Probably even when we get to the next town." He tried to sound convincing but wasn't sure himself.

She crossed her arms, "Fine. Oh and in case you hadn't noticed you have a sort of gilded dagger or blade on the back of your cloak." She then approached where the gateway ended and grabbed a small rock digging into the dirt drawing out the design.

†

The design looked like a dagger and a clover morphed together, "The dagger's color was a dark grey with red outline." Thalia described as she finished her masterpiece.

Ryo looked at the drawing the tried to look at his back. He could barely see the top but she was correct about the colors.

"You know. This could work out in a way. I could be like one of those anonymous heroes, or something like that." Ryo said out loud.

Thalia nodded, "Then you need a codename… Hmmm, how about 'Dagger back'?" she asked honestly suggesting the name.

Ryo sweat dropped, "Well it's good but I think I could work better with being called, 'Night Raven'. It only works since that's also what my equipment is named." He said confidently, and it made sense too.

Before Thalia could put in another comment, they both heard yelling coming from a side ally nearby, on a side thought at least the players were starting to move. Ryo pulled up his hood as well as his lower mask, it hugged against his face not affecting his breathing at all, as if it wasn't even there. When this was done he looked like a completely different person. The only thing she could recognize was his single sapphire blue eye on the left side of his head.

Thalia looked for his name under his HP bar that floats around him at waist height, but it wasn't there. He really had become anonymous.

They both dashed off to the right and into a dank looking ally. There before them they saw three male players surrounding a female player holding a two-handed sword. Her long black hair reaching just past her shoulder blades currently hugged her back as she was pressed against the wall. Her emerald green eyes were bordered by a determined face with a tanned tone. Her starter outfit was also green and black so Ryo guessed she wanted it to be somewhat matching with her eyes. But what caught his attention the most, was that she was an American.

"Come one boys do you really think this is that fair? Three against one?" she said mocking them.

They all glared at her as one spoke up, "Shut up! Just because we're in a safe zone doesn't mean we still can't inflict pain." He said menacingly

"Oh I'm so scared, what ever shall I do?" she said with a smile, as if she enjoyed this.

"Just shut up now. Jordan grab-!" the same man spoke out again, but not before he had taken a solid punch to the face from Ryo, but to them he was a very shady looking player who had just attacked their boss.

"Now, now boys. I don't think it'll be too fair for all three of you two attack a woman. Especial not in the situation we are all in right now. So why don't you run along and go fuck yourselves." Ryo said in a lower tone of voice than his normal one, mainly due to the fact that the half mask was covering his mouth. He reached for his dagger but his movements were concealed by the cloak.

"Who do you think you are smartass?!" one of them shouted as he charged with a short sword, it glowing a faint red.

Ryo instantly flicked his hand out unconsciously activating a dagger skill called «Disarming Slash». It was a quick draw attack that upon connection with the target's weapon has a 75% chance of disarming them. Luckily the odds were in his favor and Ryo flicked the man's sword away and into the wall, he then connected his fist his chest and kicked the man in his gut sending him back a good five feet. Just where he had started.

The other two stared in horror and grabbed their fallen comrade running back to whatever rock they had crawled from. Ryo looked at the female player a slight sign of surprise on her face quickly disappearing and turning to anger, "Hey you alright ma'am?" Ryo asked politely.

She glared at him, "Am I fine? I'm perfectly fine! I could have handled that all on my own thank you very much!" she said pretty rudely.

"Then why hadn't you? It took me a good ten seconds to get rid of them and who knows how long you had their attention." Ryo said returning the rudeness.

"Whatever. I guess you can have a thank you. By the way, my name's Kimnyu. And who are you?"

Ryo looked back at Thalia who nodded, "That one back there Is Thalia, and me. Well until we can know each other better, you can call me 'Night Raven'."

Thalia stepped forward bowing respectfully, "Hey would you like to join us? We were going to another town, um… what was it called Ryo?" she asked not calling him Night raven. It didn't matter for her anyway.

Ryo, otherwise known to others as Nigh Raven looked back at Thalia, "I believe that «Shadowglave» would be our best bet right now." He then went into the friends tab and sent a request to Kimnyu, "You might as well accept it, otherwise we won't be able to invite you to our group." He explained.

Kimnyu understood and hit the blue circle and in the corner of Ryo's vision he saw her name an HP bar appear. Turning back around he headed for the gate again, "Let's get moving, we won't have all day and we'll need to find an inn at the town when nightfall comes." He said.

And so their once again group of three ventured off into the plains of the first floor sticking to the trail leading towards «Shadowglave». But what they didn't know is that something was waiting for them in the forest near that very town.

Author Note: Hey guys just so you know I winged it on the twist. I was thinking why not have something unique. So I came up with the spectating mother. :P of course I'm going to expand upon the idea but I had recently just came up with that little twist. So what do you think? Will Jasmine share information about what's going on in the game or will she keep it to herself?


	5. Shadowglave

Author Note: Sorry for the delay. I had some Technical difficulties. Also I just noticed this but take the little cross from my last chapter and apply the text style century schoolbook. That's what the little dagger emblem on his back looks like.

_**-5:30 P.M Day 1-**_

Thirty minutes, that's how long their minds have been burdened with the information of all the players in this game being trapped. Ten Thousand players, it was a lot of people no wonder all the copies sold out so quickly. Currently Ryo, Thalia and their new 'Recruit' Kimnyu, were heading to one of the outer towns. They had decided to walk so that they could take some time to take in physical features they could later use for their internal map.

"Hey Ryo. How much longer until we reach «Shadowglave»?" Thalia asked slightly tired. They had been walking for the past twenty-seven minutes.

Ryo looked back at Thalia also noticing Kimnyu a bit farther behind the back, but he focused more on Thalia, "We'll be there in about five more minutes. Just hang in there." Ryo looked forward again and reached to take off the lower half of his mask, it was getting a bit stuffy.

"_I wonder what we should expect in the town… as far as I know barely anything has changed. Except of course the constant threat of permanent death."_ Ryo thought irritably as his mask fell hanging limply at his neck. He kept his hood up because it kept the sun light out of his eyes.

They continued their silent walk at walking pace, every once in a while a mob would spawn and they would be within its agro range. During those small encounters Kimnyu had leveled up from one to four. Mainly because Ryo and Thalia wanted to let her get in some practice fighting, but by the looks of it she didn't need it. And now two more mobs spawned just as Ryo stepped into agro range they turned to face him. They were both wolves the average level of them so far was levels 1-3. But these ones were level five so they posted some threat, if a player was alone.

"I got this one." Ryo said coolly drawing out his dagger and rushing towards the nearest of the two wolves. The wolves responded as the closest one pounced at him while the second one circled around trying to gain an advantage. Ryo slanted his blade ever so slightly in front of him as the wolf's claws grazed the edge of the blade and combined with a small turn by Ryo, the wolf was sent past him. It in turn skidded to a halt its HP bar was at 95% so it took slight damage from the tactic.

The second wolf pounced now and Ryo responded by crouching low and swinging his dagger upward, the blade glowing a brilliant ruby red, from the ground cutting into the belly of the now injured mob. Ryo watched as it passed but kept his gaze slightly on its HP bar, which has dropped down to 70%, and its friend readying for another strike. Ryo huffed, looks like it's going to take a few more hits to take these ones down.

Ryo got up and before the wolf landed again he charged it, and by the time it did land it barely had time for a reaction before Ryo was on it. His blade flicked about creating an array red trails tracking where the weapon has been, and leaving behind long red lines where the attacks had landed. Its HP dropping fast it leaped back and then forward again, this actually caught Ryo and he was hit in the shoulder as he tried to dodge. Hi health whittled down from 100% to 80%.

"_Jesus, these things have a high damage rating if that little hit took away 20% of my health… sure glad one of the girls didn't try anything."_ Ryo thought and set back to fighting, checking the HP of the wolf it had 5% left so he should focus on the one with greater health now. He'll let one of the others get the last hit bonus as well as some Col and Exp.

Lucky for him the other one was already bounding at him at full speed, in less than a second it cleared the gap of ten meters that separated them and was already leaping. Ryo slanted his blade in front of him again dealing some more damage to the wolf and letting it slide on past, but this time it took 10% out of his own health. The wolf skidded to a halt rebounding at him relentlessly not wanting him to take a quick breath. Ryo didn't mind it only let him duck to the side and unload a barrage of quick thrusts from his dagger. Ryo thought he counted about maybe twenty or twenty-two hits before it was out of his range, and by that its HP dropped dramatically all the way from 95% to 25%. This time it just stopped completely and that's when the other wolf pounced onto Ryo when he wasn't looking.

The wolf landed a solid tackle on him as it brought him down and started to claw and bit him trying to get at important areas of the body, _"Shit! Was this its plan the whole time?!"_ he thought frantically as he flipped his blade backwards and activated a skill called «Reverse Stab». Doing just what the name implies Ryo thrust his dagger backwards into the unsuspecting wolf's back leg, finishing off the last of its HP. Ryo quickly got up now standing in a small cloud of sparkling shards he rushed the remaining one using attacks consisting of «Horizontal» and «Thrust». Once its HP bar reached around 2-5% Ryo jumped back.

"Thalia Switch! You can have the last hit on this one." He said after landing a good ten feet back.

Thalia nodded and pulled out a short sword, "Fine by me, but I'm surprised you don't want it." And she charged activating a «Vertical» sword skill. And as Swords were stronger than Daggers, her one hit took out the rest of the mob's HP and shattering it into a million tiny pieces. A second later the results screen popped up.

『 Col: 336』

『 Exp: 458』

『 Level up! 』

『 Items: 1x «Wolf Claw»』

Seth looked over it nodding in satisfaction, _"If we got that much Col with just those two wolves, we're going to be rich!" _He thought. He then looked over at Thalia with her mouth agape as if a bomb just went off.

HE approached cautiously, "Thalia… Is something wrong?" Then he looked over her results screen. Everything was relatively the same except she now had a new item. A new piece of armor to be exact.

He read it out loud, "«Pack leader's Cloak»… Thalia, I think you just got a pretty rare drop…" he said facing her.

She still looked a bit surprised but she straightened out as if she were going to a meeting, then flipped shit and cheered in happiness, "Woohoo! I finally got something that's good!" she shouted bouncing around in a small five foot area.

Seth laughed at her, "Alright goofball equip the dam thing." He said still chuckling slightly.

Thalia stopped bouncing around and flicked open her inventory speed reading the names and equipped the cloak. Prismatic shards then collapsed around her condensing in a slightly ragged pattern. Then the shards broke apart from her revealing a tough looking fur cloak. It was a full body cloak running down her back, however in the front the farthest it went down was just above the elbow. The game rendered the hood up covering most of her head only showing her face, while some of the rest was overtaken by her silver hair that cascaded down from the hood or went underneath becoming hidden by the back of the cloak. The entire thing was colored in light browns and some grey on the inside.

Pulling down the hood letting her hair be free again she lightly patted the inside that consisted of the fur and the leather on the outside, "It's so soft…" she said wrapping it around herself.

Ryo looked at her funny, "No way could it be that soft. It's made from wolf fur." Then he too felt it and was instantly convinced. It was very soft.

Thalia looked at him smugly, "Ha, told you so. Now hands off it's mine." She said greedily pulling it away from him.

Then Kimnyu interrupted, "Alright stop acting like a bunch of little children. This is a game of survival now, not pet the fuzzy cloak!" she stated brutally causing them to stop.

"Sorry… but just because it's a death game doesn't mean people won't get side-tracked." Ryo said. "We have to find something to distract us from what has befallen us." He then muttered to himself just enough to where Thalia could here.

"Whatever let's just get to the next town already it's getting dark." She said pointing towards the setting sun as it was about to cast its last ray of golden orange.

And so they trudged on, now in silence, climbing the gentle slope of a small hill. The tread on for about three more minutes until they reached the crest of the hill. And spread before them was a small town of about thirty buildings. It was about a hundred meters from their current position. The entire village looked to be made up of mainly wooden logs and planks with a rough gravel path. Beyond that he could see a vast forest, and he could tell if it was the light or the actual color of the leaves, but they seemed to be more turquoise than vibrant green. Once they got closer to the outer buildings they seemed to be farmer houses. He got this for a small farm plots next to each one. The building was mostly wooden logs and planks but the foundation was rough cobblestone. After a minute lanterns started to be lit, illuminating a ten foot area each time, one after another. Ryo then heard a faint ringing sound behind them. It sounded like a large bell being rung. Then their vision was greatly decreased as now they could only see five meters ahead of them. But they could faintly see the lights of the town which were now just twenty meters from them.

Once they passed through the threshold of light they received a small message in the middle of their visions.

『 Safe Zone 』

『 Prepare for standby 』

They all looked at each other at the last line, "Prepare for standby?" Ryo said then Thalia dropped like a rock on the spot.

Ryo rushed over to her and tried to wake her up, "Thalia?! Thalia, get up come on." He urgently tried to wake her up then looked to where Kimnyu was but to no avail. She had done the same thing.

"_Dammit..." _he mentally cursed then his legs felt wobbly then he couldn't feel them anymore as he fell backwards. Landing awkwardly on his back Ryo could do nothing as blackness started crawling inward from the outside of his vision. In the center of what vision he had left he saw a faint outline of a bird flying overhead.

"_Today is just not my lucky day…" _He thought drifting off into unconsciousness.

Quick Author Note: Alright guys so I forgot to add in the blackout part back at the city but here it is now. Also I'll still accept OC's I'll put them in as a side character so you could still have a chance to be a part of the adventure. Now back to the chapter.

Mute blackness, this was Ryo's entire world. He didn't know how long it had been like this, a minute, an hour or maybe an entire day, but whenever it was he started having very short periods of vision and sound. When the vision appeared everything was so blurry and seemed to have an olive grey hue on everything. He heard beeps, footsteps and shouting. In the short vision bursts he could see flashes of light and what he thought were people behind those lights.

Most of the sounds he heard from shouting sounded like questions. He almost got an entire sentence once, "—Kohaku how do—Trapped—SAO-?" This was all he made out from the short bursts of sound he could hear. But he could not make a sound back as if his throat was clogged with cement. Then the lights went away and the shouting muffled as Ryo heard slams as if two doors had just been shut on a vehicle. Then blackness fully took him again.

As he hung there in a suspended state Ryo wondered if he'd ever wake up again. Then he felt pins and needles. It started faintly almost unnoticeable but it started to pulse outward starting at the small of his back. He felt a slight breeze and started to hear distant birdsong. The pins and needles in his back now turned into an uncomfortable sense as he began to retain more feeling. He could feel his arms and legs now but they felt like lead weights. He then retained vision, it was blurry at first but it slowly cleared and his limbs felt lighter as well as his vision cleared up. He could hear rustling somewhere but he couldn't tell just where it was but then he felt a slight weight on his chest.

Focusing his vision finally having driven out the blurriness Ryo looked to where he felt the pressure. And there sitting on his chest was an owl. Its large round gray eyes peered at him as he peered at it. Its feathers were a dark shade of grey turning to black towards the tips of each feather, and they gave off a soft shine as the morning sun gleamed on it. He tried to reach up and touch it but it flicked its head towards his outreaching hand and nipped it flying away after it had done so.

Ryo felt the pain as if it had happened to him in real life, "Ow… what was that for?" he muttered to himself. He then looked around him. He was in «Shadowglave» on one of the rough gravel paths that wove about the town. But judging by his surroundings he was just on the outskirts of the town. He then remembered that he was with Thalia and another player named Kimnyu. He now looked around for them seeing Thalia passed out off to his left. He then looked to his right and saw that Kimnyu was actually awake and sitting up her back resting against a nearby building.

"So you're finally awake I see." She said sternly crossing her arms against her chest.

"You know you don't have to be rude most of the time you speak Kim." Ryo retorted then quickly changed the subject not wanting to get into a stupid argument over this.

"But on a side note, did you see or hear anything while you were out?" he asked curiously now sitting up his hood and mask were still up as to conceal if features.

Kimnyu nodded, "Ya I did. It was odd as if listening through a long pipe. Lots of shouting and." Then she noticed, "Hey Don't try and change the subject on me! And don't call me Kim either!" she yelled getting furious.

Ryo sighed hoping she would continue on with the sentence before blaring out, "Alright whatever but what did you hear? I'm a bit curious on this."

Kimnyu huffed calming down a bit, "Fine, but don't think I'm forgetting this little incident. But anyhow what I heard was mostly muffled, people asking questions, and closer voices but it was too muddled to make out the words they were saying."

Ryo nodded, "Same with me I guess we'll talk more about this later first I think we should get an inn." His stomach then growled and he sighed, "Plus we could all use something to eat. If I recall we haven't eaten anything since we have started playing which was somewhere between 12 and 16 hours ago."

After settling on what to do Ryo got up and picked Thalia up bridal style and started looking around, "Hey have you managed to spot the inn here yet? You have been awake longer." He asked still looking around.

She huffed, "As if it wasn't obvious enough." She said pointing directly down the road at a two story building with small balconies. And there was a sign that said 'Shadowglave inn'.

Ryo mentally face-palmed himself, "Alright then, lets rent a couple of rooms and get a bite to eat." His stomach growled again at the mention of getting food.

Walking up the steps of the inn Ryo took a quick glance around and saw the silhouette of an owl in a nearby tree, _"Hmm… I wonder what it wants."_ Ryo wondered then headed on into the inn.

The inside was welcoming and a bit warm. There tables scattered around the room with chairs next to each one and a lantern over most of them. Off to the sides of the room were small booths built to hold only four people at a time. The seats were lightly cushioned with small blue pillows. This was only the case for the booth slots. Along the farthest wall from the entrance door was a small bar stand with an NPC woman standing patiently behind it.

As Ryo approached the NPC she sprung to life, "How may I help you ma'am?" the NPC asked.

Ryo was confused then realized it probably referred to Thalia since she was the closest to it, "Um excuse me but may we have three rooms please, and some refreshments. We have been without a proper rest for some time now." Ryo said humbly.

The NPC then looked towards Ryo and showed some more emotion towards him, "Oh, yes please sit down anywhere you like sir, the rooms will be 200 col per night with food." She said gesturing around the room to one of the various tables.

Ryo nodded, "Thank you." And he started off towards one of the cushioned booths lying Thalia down on one side while he grabbed a chair from a nearby table and set it next to the booth.

Kimnyu took the other side of the booth looking a bit relaxed, "Alright now what captain?" she said sarcastically.

Ryo put his face into the palm of his hand sighing, "First of all, I'm not the 'captain' of anything. No one has to follow what I say. You have your own will so use it." He said tiredly.

Meanwhile Thalia shifted in her sleep and the small bench almost falling off and under the table.

Kimnyu looked slightly offended but didn't show it much, "don't get your pants in a bunch now mister 'Night Raven'" she snickered.

Ryo looked up at the 'Night Raven' part, "Oh is that what you're going to call me now, Kim~" he made sure to make sure she heard him call her Kim, it seemed like it might annoy her sooner or later.

"Whatever, as soon as I'm done with my food I'm heading up to my room. I could use the time away from you." She retorted harshly.

Then the NPC woman came over placing three bowls of some sort of stew down for each of us, "Here you go. It's a chicken broth stew with potatoes, celery and of course chicken." She said calmly and walked away after setting each one down.

"Actually, I think I'll take it to my room instead." Kimnyu said standing up from the booth and taking the stew with her up the stairs.

"_Jeez, what's her problem? Can't we just eat together at least as mutual acquaintances?"_ Ryo thought quietly and began to eat his stew.

_**-Approx. 2 hours later (8:47 A.M)-**_

By now Thalia had finally woken up from her 'rest' and both she and Ryo had been discussing the resent events.

"-Alright so now Kimnyu is probably mad, disgusted or something up in her room?" Thalia asked wanting to make sure she is up to date.

Ryo groaned, "For the fifth time Thalia, yes. I thought you would get it by now…" he said a tad bit annoyed

"Sorry, but I just want to be a bit thorough Ryo. It's not a crime or anything." She said innocently

Ryo shook his head, "Alright but just so you know I'm not repeating anything I have said anymore. I said it at least five times." He explained standing up

"Now I'll be in my room if you need anything, besides more questions about recent events. So just let me know when you and Kimnyu are ready to head out again." He said politely.

Thalia nodded leaving Ryo to do whatever.

As he turned and walked up the stairs he noticed that there were actually three floors in this small building. He knew this from seeing a door on a small turning point of the staircase as it continued its assent upwards. Reaching the top Ryo looked left and right and headed down the hall until he was in front of a wooden door that had his name on it. Of course he would be the only one able to see it but at least he could tell which door was his.

Opening the door Ryo was welcomed with a classic log cabin like feel from the room. He even had a small balcony, one of the few he had seen from outside. The curtains were currently open and it was dead silent in the room, the only thing he could hear was his own breathing. Stepping in and closing the door he walked over to the window and closed the curtains. His grip was still on the curtains in tight fists, and his head hung down. After a minute he relinquished his hold on the cloth trudging towards the small bed. He pulled down his hood and half mask sitting on the edge of the bed.

Ryo then flopped backwards bouncing a little before settling, and not too long afterwards, his emotions started to catch up to him. First came sadness, sadness for the loss of Crystal, sadness that he may never see his family again. Then came anger mixed with guilt, _"How could I have let this happen!?"_ he thought angrily at himself, _"why did I have to give Thalia and Crystal those copies?! Now Crystal is dead. And it's all my fault, I should have given them to another person, but then again that would have gotten them trapped here. And then there's Thalia, why did we have to meet like that? Why did the strings of fate have to pull us into this hell hole?" _He blamed himself for everything that has transpired, all that had happened to their small trio. And then short pangs of depression started assaulting his mind.

"_Should I just kill myself?"_ Ryo wondered for a short minute then he practically saw an image of Thalia flash in front of his eyes, _"No, I can't. Then Thalia would be all alone. I can't do that to her, she has already seen Crystal shatter. I don't think she can handle if she lost her only other friend in this game so soon."_ This conversation with himself continued on and on as he shifted from sitting to laying down, to pacing and back to siting. Until a knock on the door rang throughout his room interrupting all his thoughts.

"Who is it?" Ryo asked pulling up his hood and half-mask again.

"Kyra, the innkeeper. May I come in?" came a soft female voice.

Ryo got up walking to the door and opened it. He was immediately greeted with the kind face of the innkeeper, but instead of 'NPC' appearing next to her where the name would be, it now read 'Kyra The Innkeeper', "If everything alright sir? You've been up here for some hours now." She asked a tinge of concern in her voice.

Probably the first thing Ryo wondered was why the NPC was so lifelike, they weren't like this in the BETA. Then the next thing smacked him in the face, _"I'd been in here for hours?! Crap I hope Thalia and Kimnyu aren't gone yet."_

"No I'm fine, I was just doing some thinking is all. Oh and have you heard any rumors around lately?" Ryo asked the quest activation sentence that normally would get the player a quest to do. And he was right as a little exclamation point appeared above her head.

"Well yes I have. I've heard that there's a hidden cave somewhere in the nearby forest here. But our people are too afraid to enter the forest and have long wondered what lies within the cave, or if it even exists." She explained in the classic mythical way.

Ryo nodded, "What if I said that my group and I could find that cave for you?" Ryo suggested and he was going to have to tell the others about this as well.

Kyra clapped her hands together is joy, "Oh that would be wonderful, also here's a tip. If you spot an owl with dark gray feathers and eyes, follow it. The others in the town believe that it can lead those who follow towards the cave. But as I said before they are scared to follow for what may lie within the forest."

Ryo nodded stepping out of the room, "Thank you, now if you'll excuse me, I must inform the other two." As he finished the sentence a small message appeared in the center of his vision.

『 Quest accepted 』

『 Shadowglave Cave 』

Ryo continued down the stairs and into the main area looking around until he spotted Kimnyu and Thalia sitting at one of the booths. Both of them looking up towards him as he approached.

"Well, looks like we've got something we can do here now. So let's head out in an hour agreed?" Ryo said as he walked.

"I'm alright with that." Thalia said then looked to Kimnyu, "You in Kimnyu?"

Kimnyu shrugged, "Whatever, at least it'll give us a chance to level and get some Col." She said vaguely.

"So I'm hearing a yes." Ryo said

"Well of course dumbass." Kimnyu spat in a harsh sarcastic voice.

"Then it's settled, in one hour's time we'll head into the forest of Shadowglave." Ryo said enthusiastically.

Oh the treasures that await the group, or so they thought at least.

Author Note: Hey guys again srry for delay but here's the fourth chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.


	6. Night raven

Author Note: hey guys. If any of my OC donators are reading this and wondering when their OC will be introduced. Don't panic I'm not going to introduce a new OC very chapter but I will intro a new OC very soon, just keep an eye out. ;) Also I forgot to ask what armor type your guy's OC's would be using. So if you could just tell me pls that would make this so much easier. (Options: Light Amor, Heavy Amor, Mixed Amor)

_**-Day 2, 11:56 A.M-**_

Ryo, Thalia and Kimnyu were now sitting around outside waiting to depart from the town. It was their second day in the game and already they had some useful gear. Especially Ryo after he got the dagger skill bonus for being the first to equip it. He had told everyone that he would help get them their own special gear pieces and Thalia believed him, he hadn't been wrong yet. They were set to leave in about four more minutes when Ryo pointed down the way from the direction they had come from.

"Hey check it out, looks like we're not the only ones who decided to go to the outer rim of the floor." He said joyfully, probably now that he might have someone to talk to that wasn't a female. Not that girls were bad, but he could use another guy around.

In the midday sun their small group could see another small group of about five players. They looked exhausted from the way the trudged down the path with a straggler walking limply behind them. They seemed to be talking among themselves and as they got closer Ryo could see that they had some decent gear. The three closer players had a mixture of light and heavy armor as if they couldn't decide what gear type they wanted to go with. The other two looked like they had a few light armor pieces both of them having a one-handed weapon at their waist. Although one looked more like a dagger than a blade.

"Hmm, I wonder why they're here so soon." Thalia said to no one in particular.

Ryo shrugged, "Whatever reason they're here now doesn't matter as long as those players are still alive then I don't care." But painfully ironic as he finished that sentence four of those level 5 wolf spawned and instantly jumped the small party killing one of the lead members within the first three seconds. Then all hell broke loose among them as they started fighting off the wolves the prismatic shards of their friend not fluttering away. Then another one of the mixed armor players fell their shards joining his friend's.

Ryo shot up and started dashing towards them activating his sprint skill, "We have to help them out! The rest will die if we don't!" then one of the wolves actually died and Ryo got a bit happier at that.

Thalia then sprang up joining Ryo in the sprint, "Hey as long as we can help them then sure."

Now it was a three on three battle between the unknown group and the wolves, and it was sad to say that it looked like the wolves were winning. Then yet another player died and Ryo could hear him scream in terror as he shattered. Now there were only the lightly armored players left. And thanks to being lightly armored they could maneuver around the mobs faster. Then one of them saw Ryo and Thalia coming towards them and Ryo thought he saw some fear in his eyes.

Ryo glanced back, "Thalia help out the one with the dagger I'll help the other guy!" he yelled back putting on another quick burst of speed clearing the ground in no more than four more seconds.

As one of the wolves was about to leap onto the back of the swordsman Ryo was there roughly deflecting the attack but taking half of the original damage that would have been inflicted as he watched 100% drop to 90%.

The swordsman glanced back then forward again, "Glad you could join the party." He said as Ryo and him were now back to back turning in a tight circle deflecting and counterattacking the two wolves that were on them. Ryo also took quick glances towards Thalia and the other player with a dagger and it looked like they were holding their own.

Returning his head to the fight at hand Ryo noticed that the swordsman had taken care of his wolf and was no just watching his back, so Ryo took a few steps away from him keeping the remaining wolf right in front of him. Then it stopped and so did Ryo, and they just stared each other down for a moment before it let loose a howl and rushed him. Following some sort of new found temporary instinct Ryo shifted his feet so that one was in front of the other and he slouched slightly, "You might want to move." He quickly said back the swordsman. And he could tell that he looked back at Ryo.

"Wait what?" he began then Ryo flicked into nothingness a small dust cloud where he just was and somehow he had appeared at the side of the wolf matching its speed has his blade flicked into the side of it like the tongue of a snake. Somewhere within the time space of two seconds Ryo had taken the wolf's HP bar from 75% to 0% causing it to shatter ten feet from where Ryo had appeared from.

Then the all loved Results screen appeared, _"I swear people are going to start crying when they see this little thing when we get farther into the game." _He didn't bother reading it since he knew he got somewhere around the same amount of Gold and Exp as last time.

Now Ryo was wondering what the hell he had just done, at first everything was running as normal and then everything just slowed to an agonizing crawl. So he had simply walked over to the wolf and started letting loose a barrage of attacks and it just died. Guess it must be a new skill or something. Then looking towards Thalia and the dagger guy they were calmly standing in a small cloud of prismatic shards just as Ryo was now.

Ryo flicked his wrist now starting to walk back to the town simultaneously searching through the skills listing, "Hey if you guys want to live much longer I suggest getting to the town's safe zone and getting some rest you looked exhausted." He said calmly looking up to Thalia as he passed, "Come on Kim is waiting on us."

Without another word Thalia followed behind Ryo.

"Hey who the hell are you?" said one of the two lightly armored players.

Ryo stopped in his tracks glancing to his side at Thalia he whispered, "Hey we don't know these guys so I'm just going to make up something others can call me, got it?"

Thalia gave a slight nod and Ryo turned around. He hadn't noticed this yet but he actually had his hood and half mask up, must go up automatically during battle sometimes.

"I'm currently going by the call sign of 'Night Raven'. And you two might be?" He said resisting the urge to point out that they could have just let them die and that they should be a bit more appreciative.

The one that was with Thalia spoke up first drawing Ryo's attention and having him get a good enough look at him. The young man looked to be about 17 years old and he was 5' 10. His starter cloths were purple and red while taking a look at his face Ryo noted that he had wavy blue hair that covered his right eye. For now he took account that his eyes were blue and he also seemed to be a mix of different races. But probably the most noticeable was the scar running from his nose to his left cheek. Ryo wasn't going to bother how he had gotten it.

"Phones…" He said in a way that suggested he was a bit anti-social.

"Alright then, Phones. And you are?" Ryo directed the question towards the other guy.

He also looked to be about 17 years of age but he was Japanese. Also being 6'2 his black hair completely covering his left eye practically outlining his grey eye. With a fair skin tone and red with black starting cloths. Ryo was given the slight impression he could just be a PKer.

"Name's Kaito, Night Raven. Now are we going to stand here waiting for more of those dogs or are we going to get to the safe zone?" he said.

Ryo nodded turning back around and headed for the town, waving his hand in a 'follow me' motion, "Let's go then." He said. A moment later he could hear the footfalls of three people following behind him, _"Looks like we're already branching out to other players."_ He thought.

Then they were greeted with the relaxing message in front of them.

『 Safe Zone 』

『 Shadowglave 』

**Sorry about short chapter guys but I've had some writers block with this story for a while now and thought I might as well introduce some new characters. But being more honest here I've been thinking of creating a fanfic for another one of my more liked anime. But anyway to those of you who donated the OC's thanks and I'll see you all next time.**


	7. Into the Forest

**Ok sorry guys for not updating sooner, but W/ this chapter there'll be a sneak peek into the mind of Thalia, but it's not going to be much. **

_**-Day 2, 1:48 p.m.-**_

It's been two hours since Ryo, Thalia, and Kimnyu had met their newest arrivals, Phones, and Kaito. They were both interesting in their own way, but Kaito made Ryo feel uneasy. He guessed that it was because he gave off a certain presence. Ryo just didn't know exactly what it was but for now, their small group of three became a group of five. Now they were all back in the inn having some idle chat. Even though Ryo really wanted to get back to the quest, plus it would give him some information about that odd owl that bit his finger earlier.

He wasn't paying attention to the group conversation but he caught bits and pieces about how Phones and Kaito met up. Then Thalia scooted near Ryo and elbowed him in the side, "Hey you alright there, Ryo? You seem a bit distracted." She asked with curiosity.

Looking at her breaking away a chain of thought Ryo lightly waved away the question, "Yea, I'm fine, just a bit anxious is all." He partially lied

Obviously not satisfied she prodded him in the ribs again leaning in close to where her head was just above his shoulder, "That's bullshit." She said toying with him, "Now what's the _real_ reason?" she questioned.

Ryo not exactly wanted to get into this type of conversation within earshot of the others lightly pushed Thalia away enough to where he could snake his way up and out the front door, "We'll talk about this later…" he said as he was getting up.

Thalia sitting there a bit dumbfounded and staring at the door wondered if she struck I nerve so she felt the urge to go into stalker mode and follow him to where he might head off to but first an excuse, "I'm going to explore the town a bit I'll be back." She said happily leaving Kimnyu with Kaito and Phones to talk among themselves.

Kimnyu turned her head to look at her, "Whatever, just don't manage to kill yourself while you're at it." She said a bit coldly

Thalia shrugged off the cold comment and skipped out the door, as soon as she was out of eyesight of them, a few feet outside, she quickly scanned the surrounding area to see if she could spot Ryo. What she saw was all the medieval housing lightly clustered around a larger building, seemingly the town hall. Looking the opposite direction of the hall barely caught sight of Ryo's cloak fluttering around the corner of a house on the outskirts of the town.

Hurrying in that general direction she stopped at the corner and peeked around it catching Ryo at the edge of the safe zone border facing the forest. But his attention was no focused as his head turned looking here and there searchingly. Then she saw the flash of gray pass right in front him as he also did slightly wheeling back in surprise. Then after recovering he headed in the direction the gray blur went disappearing behind another building.

Now extremely interested in what Ryo was doing Thalia rushed to where Ryo was standing and looked for where he had gone, but he wasn't there anymore. Looking around in confusion Thalia scratched the back of her neck muttering, "Where'd he go?" then after a few moments she started to look around once again.

_** -Ryo's POV-**_

Ryo had decided to take look around the borders of the town to see if he could spot any Mobs that might pose a threat to him or his group. Other than the wolves and a few 'friendly' animals he didn't see anything majorly threatening. He also had the slight feeling that he was being watched but dismissed it as he stopped in front of one section of the forested area. Started to look around for any signs of movement he was greeted with a nice little flyby from an unknown gray blur buffeting wind in his face and causing Ryo to wheel back slightly.

"Well then, that wasn't very friendly…" he muttered recovering and headed off in the direction the gray blur disappeared to. As soon as he had gone two meters he turned sharply into the forest and hid behind a tree. Now that he was out of the safe zone it seemed like his senses sharpened as he could now hear things he hadn't in the safe zone. One new sound was the repetitive footfalls coming from the town. Squeezing farther behind the tree he slightly peeked his head out enough to see Thalia looking about in confusion.

"_Was she following me?"_ he wondered as she started off again, casting her gaze here and there searchingly.

Shrugging it off he made sure that his hood and faceguard were secured on his head and also did a quick weapons check, "All set, let's get a better look out our surroundings." He muttered quietly to himself. Ryo then turned into the forest and started to lightly jog his way around. So far there didn't seem to be anything remotely dangerous, unless a player was allergic to Hares and Deer. He tried to catch a Hare a couple times, but they both ended up with him on chest and knife embedded in the ground. Now his armor/clothing was dusted with dirt as he continued on deeper into the forest.

"Why were the townsfolk so afraid, there's nothing out here…" Ryo muttered to himself as he watched yet another animal scurry away, "This is not what I expected."

Ryo then stopped to take a detailed look at his surroundings, realizing that the forest was getting dense and oddly seemed darker. He then made the decision to mark where he's been, however a downside is that any environmental change would only last a few hours. Walking to the nearest tree he dug the end of his dagger into a tree and made a crude looking arrow pointing the direction he had come.

Then taking another look he saw the familiar silhouette of an owl staring in his direction, "Oh so you finally decided to show up again?" Ryo said in a slightly mocking tone.

The owl just silently flapped its wings in response and puffed the feathers on his neck with them slowly settling back down.

"Ok so, what now? I'm talking to an owl, who I really hope can't talk back because that would be creepy." Ryo asked muttering the last comment to himself.

The owl hooted at Ryo and seemed to motion for him to follow as it started off to the right deeper into the darkening and constricting forest. Ryo honestly felt uneasy but as he was starting to lose sight of the owl he shrugged it off and hurried after it, "I better not regret this!" he grunted while running into the awaiting darkness.

**-1 hour later-**

Thalia had finally given up on finding where Ryo had disappeared to and was now eating some sort of soup alone at a stationary table in the middle of the inn. Using a fork the played with a few of the noodles that had a small chunk of meat entangled in them.

"Hey, Thalia. Where's that showoff Ryo?" Kimnyu asked rudely coming from behind Thalia.

Thalia continued playing with the noodles, "I don't know, I was looking for him for at least forty minutes, but I can't find him." She said a bit depressingly.

"Wow, and I thought he was shady back at the Town of Beginnings, but now he just up and disappears?" she said

Thalia looked at Kimnyu a bit annoyed, "I'm sure he has his reasons for doing, whatever it is he's doing…"

"Yea, Ok." Kimnyu responded.

Thalia then just started to ignore Kimnyu as she went back to partly playing with her food and eating it. All the while a single question ran through her head, _"Will we all make it out alive?"_

** -Back W/ Ryo-**

Ryo had been walking for a while now, his pace slow and getting even slower the farther he went into the compressing forestry. Using his dagger he hacked and slashed at bushes and shrubs that were too thick to simply walk through. All in the effort to keep up with his new little feathered friend, who was currently waiting patiently on a branch in one of the trees up ahead.

"Hey how much further already? This is starting to get annoying…" Ryo asked the owl grunting at the end as he slashed his way through another bush.

The owl just looked at Ryo with its big gray eyes and hooted, almost urging him on. Then he did something unexpected, the owl dropped straight from the branch and disappeared, seemingly into the ground.

Ryo just stared in confusion as he picked up the pace a bit to were the owl had just been engulfed by the ground. What he saw was a small hold about the size of his head, if he were to put it in there. What caught his interest though was the fact that the grass around the hole seemed to dip and bend in a circle around the hole. Ryo carefully grabbed a rotting piece of tree bark off the ground and chucked it at the ground. The bark was swallowed up leaving behind a rough hole, shaped like a potato. The ground around it also dipped and bent even further.

"Interesting…" Ryo muttered to himself then picked up more rotting bark and chucked them at random at the dipping grass until all that was left was a hole roughly four feet in diameter, and of course pitch black at the bottom.

"Great, and I don't even have a light source…" Ryo muttered miserably when his little friend popped out of the hole and landed on the opposite side from him.

It hooted and flapped its wings at Ryo obviously wanting him to jump down the hole.

Ryo awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck looking at the owl, "You do know I can't see in the dark like you can…" he said and then looked around. He needed to get back to Shadowglave. But the only thing is, he couldn't remember which way he came from. He had moved around picking up bark to toss in and clear the hole so now he wasn't sure which way to go. Taking a quick scan around him Ryo found the bush he had recently slashed apart and headed towards it.

"Sorry but I can't go down there without the others, they'll probably get mad at me for hogging a find like this to myself." Ryo said waving good-bye to the owl, but unfortunately for him, the owl didn't believe it was time to turn back.

The owl let out a menacing screech and flew right in Ryo's face, raking its claws against him and pushing him back to the hole.

"Ahh! What The fuck?! Get off me!" Ryo yelled trying to smack away the owl and with his vision crowed with feather he couldn't see properly as his right foot slipped into the pit, "Shit!" he screamed as he fell down the hole for a good five seconds landing with a painful thump on the ground below.

Being on his back Ryo looked up at the far away entrance he had been forced into, His body aced from the fall and he had lost twenty percent of his health. Gritting his teeth Ryo tried to sit up but his limbs felt like lead weights, "Well shit…" Ryo muttered then mentally cursed as he saw the gap above slowly closing back up, the sight was like seeing a spider spin a web in fast forward. Soon Ryo was left staring up at a pitch black ceiling, in a cold and damp cave.

The next thing to greet him was a seemingly bright screen in the middle of his vision yet when Ryo looked beyond it cast no light.

« Dungeon Map: Unlocked »

The message then disappeared leaving Ryo with the darkness. Not really seeing much else to do Ryo flicked his wrist and pushed on a little icon that looked like a google maps pin. Up came a few options but what he wanted was the Dungeon map. Ryo clicked it and a little side screen popped up colored neon blue and dark gray. It showed a little red triangle somewhat in the bottom right corner of the screen facing the top left corner. There were also squiggles on the map fading as they got to a certain point. Those must be paths.

Then as if it materialized from the darkness itself, the fucking owl came down and sat on his chest. At least Ryo wasn't completely alone. Now he can talk to an NPC animal and eventually become a lunatic, But hey at least he won't be alone.

Hey glared furiously at the owl, "What the hell was that for 'Mouse Brain'?!" He mocked the owl. And as if it could understand Ryo the owl pecked him a few times in anger at the name 'Mouse Brain'.

"Hey you deserved that you know, you freaking forced me down a giant hole!" Ryo hissed at the owl while flicking its belly making it flinch. It just hooted annoyance.

Ryo's limbs finally stopped feeling like lead and he tried again to sit up, tossing the owl off his chest he sat up in the middle of a hallway, darkness looming in either direction. He also got a bit light headed and started to sway for a couple seconds. Shaking his head Ryo looked for the owl who was patiently waiting off to his right, "Ok now what 'Bird Brain'? Am I still supposed to follow you or something?" he asked it and it responded by half leaping half flying onto Ryo's Right shoulder and just sitting there staring off ahead.

"Oh great, now I'm a fucking pirate, Does Polly want a cracker?" Ryo continued to mock the owl clearly still mad at it. The owl just ruffled its feathers and motioned it's head forward as if saying, _**"Whatever just go while I sit here."**_

Ryo Fully got up while the owl light beat its wings to stay on his shoulder, "Well, looks like it's gonna be a long day. Might as well send a message first." Ryo muttered still with his menu open he flicked and clicked his way to the group message system and a small keypad appeared floating in front of him.

"Hey guys, just letting you know I fell down a giant fucking hole somewhere in the forest and I don't know how to get out, But I'm alive for now. If you see my health bar disappear from your vision then I'm dead, if not I'll be seeing you later." Ryo muttered out each word he typed making the message quick a simple.

He then hit send and flicked away the menu all together staring into the empty space ahead of him his eyes adjusting to the light.

Gratefully what met his vision were tons of luminescent plants clinging to the walls of a natural looking cave system. How he hadn't noticed them till now, he would never know. But the array of colors ranged from electric blue, emerald green and in some cases lava reds and oranges.

"Next stop, Rainbow tunnel…" Ryo joked to himself earning a light cuff to the nose from the owl, apparently it didn't like the joke.

**Alright so hope you guys like the chapter, sorry it was short I was running a bit low on the ides department (Lack of planning past falling in the pit) But for those of you who have sent in an OC I very much thank you all, and also Send me some info on what guardian you would like to be paired with you OC. It's technically Beast Taming in the game, but either way All OC's must have one. So do a tiny bit a statistics like what it looked like, and its common actions/ personality. You can actually have a dragon but it'll be like Silica's.**


	8. Echoing Caverns Part 1

**Surprise! Im not dead! in so sorry about not updating for so long. But now im back, this is a short chapter so please enjoy.**

_**Chapter 6: Echoing halls part 1**_

Ryo was starting to feel a bit weak in his legs, first having to keep up in dense forestry, and freefalling, forcefully he might add, a good five seconds into a relatively pitch black hole, with o other company than the gray owl sitting upon his shoulder. He was still mad at it for casting him down here too, but for now he only paid attention to his dungeon map, as he made slow progress in mapping out the dungeon, and ultimately finding a way out.

Ryo then felt the owl flutter off his shoulder and onto the other one, looking very comfortable with its seating arrangements, "Hey how long are you just going to sit there? Can't you at least do some scouting for me?" Ryo asked in annoyance

The owl looked at Ryo with a sort of confusion yet understanding, as if it knew what he meant but wasn't sure how exactly It was supposed to do so.

Ryo lightly put his face in the palm of his hand in disappointment, "Ugh… Never mind, I guess you not going to be much help, other than as a compass." Ryo then looked back to his map, the red arrowhead was now a fourth of the way to the left side of the map, and oddly enough he hadn't seen any monsters yet. This both gave him a sense of relief and a sense of upmost paranoia, flicking his eye about the prismatic walls for any sign of movement, and straining his ears any sound other than his own feet and breathing, as well as the owl's. Not hearing or seeing anything made him more paranoid.

"_Where the hell are all the mobs?… I should have at least run into one by now."_ Ryo thought and as if the cavern heard him he saw one. It was a humanoid about the height of the average teen. It had armor on, scarily similar to that of the players' starting equipment, the armor was a soft yellow shirt under a tan leather vest, and black pants, like ancient cargo pants with a few pockets on the sides. It had light brown hair and tan skin, with blue colored eyes. But most of all, it had this ghostly façade about it, fluttering slightly as if his entire body was made from fabric. The mob's name appeared above the health bar that circled around its right side and Ryo read it with interest.

**Echoing Memory: Jeffery**

Above its head a yellow cursor, gently spinning in a counterclockwise motion. Ryo immediately closed the map and drew his blade from the scabbard, ready for a combat situation.

The Echoing Memory simply looked at Ryo with forlorn eyes as it made its hands clear to see, **"Do not be alarmed adventurer, I have no need of senseless fighting."** It spoke in a soft echoing voice, which seemed to just resonate a meaning of friendliness.

Ryo, still a little on edge, slowly moved his blade to his side looking at the NPC. He tilted his head lightly in slight wonder, _"Is this a quest NPC? But what is it doing here?"_ Ryo thought to himself.

"Alright then, are you lost in this cave like I am?" Ryo asked quizzically. Partially asking the question out of curiosity for what it might say.

Jeffery looked confused, "I'm not sure what you're talking about. As far as I remember I have always been in here just walking around."

Now it was Ryo's turn for a bit of confusion, _"Even if he's dead, shouldn't an NPC at least have some memory outside of the cave?" _Ryo thought and slowly started his way over to Jeffery, "Have you seen the exit by chance during your 'walk around the park'?

Jeffery nodded and twisted pointing down the dark tunnel, "**I believe I may have seen one back that way. But I never thought to venture out.**"

Ryo tried to stare down the tunnel, hoping to see a small beam of light or something that indicated the way out, "Cool… Thanks for the help. Anything you might want to warn me about?" Ryo asked as a precaution.

Jeffery put his ghostly hand to the bottom of his chin in thought, "**I can't quite remember. But I've seen some fairly tough looking monsters not too far ahead. I would also watch my footing if I were you. Take care now." **With that Jeffery became an ethereal smoke cloud that quickly evaporated.

Ryo looked at the spot where he used to be then up ahead, it was fairly dark considering the limited light the luminescent plants gave. All the sudden a small little red dot appeared in the corner of his vision. It would have been virtually unnoticeable had he not been in such a dim area, "What the hell…" Ryo muttered trying to center the little dot in the middle of his vision, but it stayed exactly where it was. Sighing Ryo gave up the pursuit and started down the tunnel, dagger in hand and annoying owl on his shoulder. As Ryo walked on, he noticed that the primal cave started to lose the stalagmites on the ceiling, slowly being replaced with rough yet smooth looking stone that shone as if they had tiny jewels crushed on the surface. "Oh look, more flight space…" Ryo commented looking at the owl, "You wana scout for me now?" he suggested impatiently

The owl looked at Ryo then at the area ahead, its feathers ruffling and it shuffled its way to be more hidden behind his head.

"What? Too chicken to fly ahead and then come back?" Ryo joked, sadly moments after he said this he took another step and he felt that foot take a little bit of a dip after fully landing on the ground. There was a click, and then grinding, as if a large stone door was being opened. Then came a vicious sound of skittering and a few gnashing teeth. Ryo immediately flicked his vision behind him and suddenly out from the darkness crawled three very large, and very angry looking Centipedes. Ryo could only make out part of their long wiggly bodies, and he had to estimate that there were at least seventy legs, each a foot in length, and they just kept coming. They were colored a sickening color of green and random sized blotches of blood red. The pincer on each of their insect like heads were colored yellow and tipped with black.

"Oh, shit…" Ryo muttered with a mix of shock, fear and a bit of amazement. He started to slowly step backwards, trying to assess the situation to his advantage. He wanted to get to the more smooth area a bit more this way he had a bit more breathing room in terms of dodging. But he mainly just wanted to get them completely out of the dark so he wouldn't get surprise attacked by the other end of them. The Centipedes however, didn't share his feelings as one of them eagerly gnashed it's huge pincers, that looked as if they could easily snap Ryo in half, and charged him, It's dozens of legs clattering forward like a wave of clappers. It opened its pincers directing them at Ryo, venomous looking drool dripping from the ends now, and let out a gruesome shrill that would send chills up a mammoth's spine.

The owl flew off of his shoulder as Ryo quickly ducked to the side, narrowly dodging the screeching insect, and slammed his side into the wall, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Just in time, Ryo heard a second gruesome shrill, and one of the other giant Centipedes lunged at him. Ryo, not knowing much else to do, dropped flat on the ground. Whipping out his dagger, in a vice grip that turned his knuckles white, Ryo pointed upward and slanted it a bit just in time to start shredding halfway down the monsters exposed underside, his blade leaving behind a widening digital red mesh. A moment later Ryo was up in the air, his entire body feeling weightless. His hair even looked like it was underwater. Then Gravity kicked in again, and Ryo felt himself plummet back down. Just before making contact with the ground he felt a sudden force and slight pain hit his midsection, and he was sent sprawling down the tunnel, skidding and flipping at least two times before coming to a rough stop on his side. Having his eyes closed for a second his focus shifted to his declining health bar, **95%, 90%, 80%, 75%...** his health kept dropping until it stopped at **63%**. That made him cringe, if that had taken so much from him then what would happen from a direct hit from those pincers?!

Ryo could suddenly imagine himself trapped and paralyzed in the maw of one of the centipedes, suddenly shattering into prismatic shards. He clenched his fist, finding that somehow he had managed to hold onto his blade, and punched ground hard quickly getting up in the process. He then glared coolly yet menacingly at the three centipedes, absentmindedly snapping their pincers, "I'm not dieing here! Not just yet!" he shouted and powered up a charge skill. He held his blade low and to his side, as if he were holding a full length sword, one palm on the bottom of the hilt. The Centipedes all shrilled at once and rushed at him as one tangled mob of gnashing pincers and skittering feet. Ryo stared ahead with determination, and charged at the centipedes, his vision darkening until he could only see the bright orange of the blade and the red cut marks that danced into existence.

"Amber_, Mom… I will make it back to you both!"_


End file.
